Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-09-08
EDUCATIONAL.
interesting Thoughts on the Proper Stud
les for High Schools-Evening
Schools and Libraries
College ProfesSorships in this Country VI ere
S;necures at the Present Day.
SECONDARY INSTRUCTION.

/
/ cational Association at Chicago, Sam
uel Thurber of Milton. Mass, read a
! paper on The Order and Relation of
Studies in the High School Course
from which we quote:
! Whatever shape the secondary edu-
cation OF the future may take it will
be the outGrowth of the secondary ed
uoation OF to-day. Every school that
has history has anomalies If it is a
famous school newer ones will be
found to have copied some of its lido
oSynerasies. The early high schools
seem to have been formed to be an epi.
tome OF all knowledge. A college de-
gree gave man dignity This idea
is passing away. 1t is no longer nee
| essary for teacher to be Il learned
man. He must know how to teach
certain branches. The nigh schools in
their early form We're to serve two
purpOseS-tO fit students for college
and to serve the ends of education.
Without a determinary principle the
school was without stability. The
school is for the sake of the pupils.
There are four aims in the school
course-the moral, the esthetic, the
intellectual and the practical. 1t is
Tor Us to see what purpose will be
served by change of study. AS soon
as the child has learned to read. the
reading book is laid aside. A hiob
school reading book cannot be i'm
agined. A high school library is the
thing. A great deal of cursory read
ing is necessary to offset the effects of
the text books. History cannot be
confined to text books. The reading
of history and literature should be
perennial and composition writing
should go along with it. Pupils hav-
ing read something should be held to
the practice of extracting the kernel
of thoughG and reproducing it in
simpler form. The abridgment of the
English grammar in the schools has
gone far enough. Mental and moral
science should not have place in Sec
ondary education. No new high
school courses have been planned in
Guiding these studies. English gram
mar pursued as science meets the
wants OF earlier high school years. 1t
will be naturally followed by rhetoric.
Logic also has to do with language.
He who has had good education
should come to Il subject with the
power Of making reasonable distinc-
tions and arriving at correct conclu-
siOnS. The English studies should
have two-fifths OF the time of the HIGH
school besides influencing all the out
side reading. The humanity of the
Romans depended on their study Of
the Greek writer's. There has grown
up literature more interesting and
more rich in thought. The old Iitera-
ture Of England and Germany are ex-
amples. Nobody speaks Latin, or
even writes it, except to show a kind
of scholastic ability. The scholars OF
the middle ages would not have UNDER |
stood the arguments of to-day in favor |
Of the study Of the classics. The idea |
of the ancient humanists was to come |
in contact with the best thought, and
is still good idea to be carried in the |
course of the education OF young men.
But no dead language can now lie be-
tween the student and the best thoughts
of any age. We have English transla-
tionS now.
Is classical course worth the while? |
An educational movement is being car
ried on in Germany, France and Switz-
erlanG which is in sympathy with the |
query. As TO the assumed disciplinary |
use OF Latin, it is an argument which |
has all the modern marks of the de- |
vice. We come nearer to zero in the |
amount of Latin we give our boys and |
girls than we do to mastery of the |
language. The studies should be |
grouped around the English. Only |
one foreign language should be taught. |
A. foUr-year course in French would |
give the students a very thorough ac-
quaintance with the language One
language thoroughly acquired will |
make the study of others much easier.
The colleges will always offer courses
which require a preparatory knowl- |
edge of Greek and Latin, and the high |
schools must, therefore, to some eX-
tent be preparatory. But the time |
will soon come when colleges will adj |
nit students from any high school.
EVENING SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES.
At the same session Albert P. Mar |
Bile Of Massachusetts, discussed the
subject by Evening Schools" The |
principal points in his paper are sum-
married. in the following:
These schools are designed to take
the place of the old apprentice schools.
They supplement the day schools. |
They are designed for persons of both
sexes. Is years old or more. They |
furnish the opportunity for children
who have been obliged to leave school
before they have acquired sufficient
knowledge to study profitably by
where they may receive !
sufficient instruction to enable them |
to use the library to advantage, and |
thus become self-taught. These |
schools also provide the means of in
struction for our imported fellow citi-
zens whose early opportunities were
scant, and for foreigners of other
tongues settling with Us to learn our
language. It should not be the aim to
so expand these schools as to make |
them as extensive with the day schools
"a sort of ghostly school system,
masquerading by night, the shadow,
the echo OF the day schools. Study is
work; and children who work by day
ought to sleep by night. These insti-
tutions ought not to entice from school
I IL ! L 4